Jan. 26, 2025, 4:29 p.m.
(Serhiy Mykhaylechko (left) and Yuriy Mykhaylechko (right). Photo: CJR)
Senior police lieutenant Serhiy Mykhaylechko, a 39-year-old resident of Kherson, joined the occupation "special forces unit 'Grom'" in 2022. For the crime, the Desnianskyi District Court of Chernihiv found him guilty in absentia of treason and collaboration. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
According to the Center for Investigative Journalism, the court found that since 2016, Mykhaylechko had been working as an inspector on duty at the special police company of the National Police of Ukraine in Kherson region. During the occupation of Kherson, he refused to comply with the order of his superiors to leave and continue his service in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine, and later wrote an application for employment in the main department of the occupation "Ministry of Internal Affairs" (MIA) of Kherson region.
Mykhaylechko's first position with the enemy was as an acting platoon commander of a battalion of the patrol and post service of the public security department. Two weeks later, on July 1, 2022, he was transferred to the position of the head of the 2nd combat unit of the "Grom special purpose detachment". This detachment was engaged in kidnappings and illegal investigative and operational activities.
Numerous documents and witnesses' testimonies proved Serhiy Mykhaylechko's crime. According to one of his former colleagues from the occupation "Ministry of Internal Affairs" in Kherson region, she saw him provide documents for employment in the "Grom" unit and saw his personal file. Another witness told how Mykhaylechko offered him to work for the enemy, talking about a good salary and a supposedly normal pension in the future.
Serhiy Mykhaylechko was found guilty in absentia of treason and collaboration. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property and deprivation of his special rank of "senior police lieutenant". A two-hectare plot of land in the Berezneguvata village community of Bashtanka district, Mykolaiv region, where he comes from, is confiscated from Mykhailo as state revenue.
Earlier, according to the CHR, Serhiy Mykhaylechko's younger brother Yuriy received a similar sentence. Also, the Uzhhorod City District Court of Zakarpattia region sentenced a former emergency officer from Kherson region, Serhiy Karcheny, to 8 years for working for the occupiers .
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